The invention relates to a method for detecting, from a bit stream, data packets such as ATM data cells, in particular where these originate from different sources and are combined into one stream of data packets, each data packet being preceded by a preamble which comprises at least a gap, formed by a number of 0-bits, and a unique word UW, whose reference value is formed by a specific combination of 0-bits and 1-bits and which has a length of b(uw) bits.
It is generally known to have data packets preceded by a string of 0-bits ("gap") and a recognition string, the unique word (UW). using windowing of the detected bit stream, the beginning of a new data packet is detected as soon as the bit string within the window corresponds to the specified UW which is known beforehand and stored in the system in which the data packets have to be detected. If this method is to have a sufficiently low error probability, the UW has to be fairly long, which results in the detection thereof being relatively processing-intensive and thus requiring a considerable amount of time.